This invention relates generally to steel foothold trap trigger systems and, more particularly, to a steel foothold trap trigger system that has No Dead Zone.
Metal foothold traps have been in use since 1300 A.D. and in all that time, the basics of the trap have changed very little. That's because the foothold trap is one of the most ahead-of-its-time inventions ever developed. Inasmuch as the current invention relates to the basic function of steel foothold traps, a brief functional description of conventional traps is in order.
The pan of a conventional foothold trap is pivotally anchored to the trap frame. The pan is what the animal steps on to trigger the trap, or what is commonly referred to as to “fire” the trap. The dog of the trap is pivotally anchored outside of the trap jaw circumference on a part of the trap's frame commonly referred to as the dog post.
When the trap's springs are manually compressed and the jaws are opened up to form an elongated circle, rectangle, etc., the dog is used to capture one of the jaws. This is accomplished by the dog pivoting over the top of one jaw and set into a notch on the pan; this in turn holds the trap jaws open under substantial pressure from the springs.
Therefore, when a specific amount of weight is applied to the pan by the target animal, the pan is compressed in a downward motion and pivots at its pivot point. By this process, the pan drops under the animal's weight and pulls away from the dog that is anchored firmly at its own pivot point and the captured jaw is released.
Thus, when the pan and the dog are pulled apart or “disengaged”, the dog is forced upwardly in a pivoting arch by the pressure of the jaws which are being forced up by the compressed springs and the trap is closed on the animal's foot.
There have been numerous modifications to steel foot-hold traps over the years, including several different trigger systems designs. However, steel traps, from their earliest beginnings to the modern foothold traps of today, all have a design flaw. They all have a “dead zone.”
On all modern foothold traps available today, there is a part of the trigger system that will not fire the trap when an animal steps on it. This is commonly referred to as the dead zone of the trap. The dead zone of a trap is the part of the trigger system that includes the pan at the vertical point of its pivot location and the dog.
This dead zone, on average, can be as much as one third of the inside diameter of the trap (as is shown in the drawings illustrating the prior art discussed below). Thus, a target animal can step inside the jaws of the trap and not be captured. Theoretically, the trap could miss one third of the animals that step inside the jaws.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a steel foothold trap trigger system that is one hundred percent free of any dead zone. Furthermore, it would be desirable to have a steel foothold trap trigger system that incorporates a camming device capable of producing even pan tension on all parts of the trap pan.